Cuba will be led by Wilfredo Leon who will become one of the youngest captains in World League history at 18

Lausanne, Switzerland, May 5, 2011 – Cuba’s Wilfredo Leon will become one of the youngest captains in FIVB Volleyball World League history while Brazil’s Gustavo Endres returns to the side after taking a year out after the 16 squads for the 2011 FIVB Volleyball World League were officially unveiled on Thursday.

The premier annual volleyball tournament for men is under a month away and the preliminary squads have now been reduced to just 20 players for the seven week tournament. The Intercontinental Round will run from May 27 to July 2 with the Final Round taking place from July 6 to 10 in Gdansk-Sopot, Poland.

Leon takes over from Robertlandy Simon, who is still included in the Cuban side who will be looking to improve on their fourth place finish last year, while Gustavo will be relishing the chance to add another title to his tally after missing out on Brazil’s 2010 victory in Argentina.

Meanwhile Poland’s Piotr Gruszka will be the most capped player in the tournament with 360 selections for his country.

Puerto Rico will be playing in their first ever World League this year and will be led by experienced skipper Hector Soto. Ranked 16th in the world, the Central Americans will also have talismanic Jose Rivera to rely on, one of their stars at last year’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in Italy.

Russia will be looking to go one better than last year’s silver medal performance and will be led by captain Taras Khtei while last year’s World League top scorer Maxim Mikhaylov is also included in the squad.

Additionally, the FIVB also announced some changes to the way pools will be decided in the case of a tie break. Teams even on points at the end of the Intercontinental Round will be classified according to the number of matches they have won, sets ratio and then points ratio, changing from the previous system of using points ratio before sets ratio.